Chapter 26: Past Events

The cart couldn’t fit any more fruit, so Xiaomei stuffed the fruit, scale, and stool into the firewood bag, carried it on her back, pulled the cart with her left hand, and held the money pouch in her right. Xiang Lingling watched her with concern, thinking it looked exhausting, but Xiaomei herself felt perfectly fine.

After waving goodbye to Xiang Lingling, Xiaomei happily headed home.

This time, everyone was home. Seeing her come back with bags and bundles, they all rushed to help her carry things.

Grabbing the items, Grandma Wang pulled Xiaomei into the bedroom and even shut the door behind them.

Wang Peigen, Gu Hua’e, and the others were all left outside.

One by one, Grandma Wang unpacked the items, and anything with signs of being from the modern world was “disposed of”—plastic wrappers were hidden in the camphorwood chest to be thrown away the next day.

Grandma Wang was especially pleased with Xiaomei’s cart. She tried it again and again, clearly loving it. “This cart really saves effort. Good girl, you picked the right thing.”

“Grandma, I’ll go buy you one tomorrow. It’s not expensive.” Xiaomei currently had over a thousand yuan—almost two thousand—and felt like a little rich woman.

“Let’s wait and see.” While carts were common over there, they were a novelty here and would attract attention. Doing business was already a hush-hush thing—no need to announce it to the world.

Better to stick with baskets or firewood bags.

“You got the brown sugar right,” Grandma Wang quickly shifted Xiaomei’s attention. “This evening, just after work, a few people came asking to buy brown sugar. I was just regretting not telling you to bring some back—but look at you, you clever girl, you already did!”

She pulled her granddaughter into a hug and gave her a loud kiss on the cheek, making Xiaomei so happy she nearly lost her bearings.

While Xiaomei giggled foolishly, Grandma Wang stepped outside and said to her daughter-in-law, “Hua’e, go tell Jinsheng’s, Fuming’s, Taohua’s, and Yajuan’s mothers that we’ve got brown sugar. If they want some, come by later. And be quiet—don’t shout it for the whole village to hear.”

Gu Hua’e agreed and left.

Wang Peigen looked at his mother, then at his wife, puzzled—did Xiaomei bring back brown sugar again?

Where was this kid getting all this stuff? Was it safe?

Grandma Wang saw the look on her son’s face and immediately knew what he was thinking. Back in the bedroom, she took out some prepared dishes and meat buns. “She bartered with others for everything. As long as we adults don’t talk about it, there’s no problem. I’m her grandma—I wouldn’t harm her. Cut up the beef and salted goose—take a few slices each with Xiaohua, and put the rest in the cupboard. One meat bun each, the extras go in the cupboard too. After dinner, go to Uncle Gu’s house and deliver some fruit and buns.”

As she spoke, she packed five apples, a packet of cookies, and five buns into a woven basket and placed it on the table, then went back into the bedroom.

Wang Peigen felt reassured. He knew his mother well—she always had a mind of her own.

Their original house had been on the west side of Hebei Village, several homes away from Uncle Gu’s place. Back then, when his father passed away, Wang Peigen was only a little over ten. His three older sisters had all married, leaving just him and his mother. Their neighbor, a difficult and domineering woman with a large family, often took advantage of them. The Wang family, being down to just mother and son, had no power and no one to speak up for them.

It was his mother who made the decisive choice to move house.

He’d kept an eye out for opportunities. Bai Nan, a boy he was close to, lived at the east end of the village. After hearing about their situation, Bai Nan discussed it with his parents.

The Bai family had three sons and a small three-room house. As the boys grew, they’d been trying to apply for a land grant to expand. After hearing the proposal, they agreed—the Wang house had five rooms and, more importantly, the yard was long from north to south, perfect for building two rows of houses. It was a good deal.

As for the troublesome neighbor, the Bai family wasn’t worried—they had sons, uncles, and were well-connected and united. If trouble came, they could rally support easily.

Fight fire with fire—who’s afraid?

So young Peigen told his grandmother about the Bai family’s offer. Grandma Wang said, “This house will be yours one day. Whether to trade or not is entirely up to you. If it’s a good deal, go for it. If not, we’ll stick it out here.”

And just like that, two kids barely over ten years old made the deal happen.

There was plenty of gossip in the village. Most accused Grandma Wang of squandering her late husband’s hard-earned estate.

Even the three older sisters came home to question what had happened—they all felt the house was too precious to give up.

Grandma Wang was calm. She had never cared about what others in the village thought. Now everyone was acting like it was a shame, but when neighbors had bullied the mother and son, all they did was watch.

If they hadn’t moved, they wouldn’t have been killed, but her son would’ve lost heart for school, and his character would’ve become either timid or vengeful—neither outcome was acceptable to her.

Her son was smart. At six years old, he’d corrected a typo on a teacher’s spring couplet, earning him a reputation as a prodigy in the village. With the new house, he could study in peace.

No material thing was more important than her son growing up well.

Later, young Peigen got into an agricultural school in Sucheng. If he graduated, he could work in veterinary medicine—a step out of farming.

But by second year, the family had no money left. They’d borrowed from every relative and neighbor, but it still wasn’t enough. Without more funds, Peigen would have to drop out.

Grandma Wang gritted her teeth and sold off two side rooms in their house to raise the money.

The village once again criticized her harshly, calling her the ultimate spendthrift.

In his third year, the student movements in Sucheng escalated into violence and chaos.

When Grandma Wang heard the news, she sighed deeply and didn’t sleep all night.

The next day, she personally went by boat to fetch her son from school, dragging the zealous young man back home.

Dreams of glory and success, breaking free from the farm life—all meaningless in the face of personal safety.

Back home, Wang Peigen fell into a slump. He had just six months until graduation. Now that he was home, there’d be no diploma, and he’d have to farm. Having never touched a hoe before, he was now a grown man learning from scratch—he lost both pride and confidence.

Grandma Wang, seeing her son so down, first arranged for a matchmaker and landed him a bride from the Gu family. After marriage, she took charge of the household and fields. Their kitchen garden produced more than they could eat, and she was fruitful too—a son and a daughter, making a happy family. The kids were bright and well-behaved from the start. The granddaughter especially was a delight—smiling at everyone and knowing who to call uncle, auntie, or grandma.

As for her son’s job, Grandma Wang sought help from the commune leaders. They remembered him as a prodigy and agreed to let him start work at the commune, writing documents and such.

But by then, Bai Nan had become a village leader and strongly urged Peigen to return and work in the village—arguing that being the head of a chicken was better than the tail of a phoenix.

Grandma Wang opposed the idea. The village had changed, and Bai Nan wasn’t the same boy anymore.

Especially troubling was Bai Nan’s close friend, a man nicknamed Xiaolai (Little Scab), who’d had a pockmarked scalp since childhood. He was now the team’s accountant and, in Grandma Wang’s eyes, was greedy, lustful, and scheming.

Bai Nan used to be a good person, but mixing with Xiaolai could only lead to trouble.

She didn’t want her son involved with them.

Unfortunately, the son who had always respected her and followed her advice insisted on working in the village. “I’ll be a barefoot doctor. It’s an independent role—I won’t get mixed up with them,” he said.

Peigen was indeed clever. Though trained as a vet, he taught himself and transitioned into being a barefoot doctor. Even the most respected doctor in the commune hospital, Dr. Li Sanxing, was impressed by him.

Especially the following year, when the county held a barefoot doctor competition—Peigen won first place.

That’s when Grandma Wang finally gave up trying to change his mind.

Now, several years later, Bai Nan had become the brigade secretary, and Xiaolai the brigade accountant. Grandma Wang watched from the sidelines. Her son remained neither close nor distant with them—not as friendly as in childhood—which reassured her.